Pennsylvania man accused of buying body parts is a HISTORIAN who keeps remains, girlfriend claims

The girlfriend of a heavily tattooed Pennsylvania man accused of being involved in the illegal trade in body parts has claimed he is an innocent historian preserving human remains for the good of society.

Jeremy Pauley, 41, and five others were charged with trafficking in stolen human remains, including skulls, hearts, skin and stillborn babies.

Prosecutors say a nationwide network of individuals bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas morgue.

But Pauley’s girlfriend Sophie Mae Vee – who describes herself as a human blood artist – has now claimed he has a legitimate, legal business to preserve human parts for his museum.

“Jeremy’s dedication to unusual antiquities is as unquestioning as his looks, which is a shame in a situation where clickbait reaches as far as the media reaches,” she wrote on Facebook.

Well-preserved remains are perfectly legal in the legal states (with the exception of GA, TN, and LA). As a custodian of history, Jeremy repurposes ancient relics to prevent specimens from being destroyed – his museum is all about education and reclamation.”

Indeed, it is legal in almost every state to buy and sell the properly obtained adult human remains, but it is illegal to trade human fetuses.

A website for Pauley’s museum, The Memento Mori, states that he is a “chief preservation specialist of retired medical specimens and curator of historical relics and artifacts.”

“Through his work in the Institute of Preservation, Jeremy works to produce educational resources by reconditioning retired medical remains through plastination, corrosion casting, anatomical attachments, and all types of preservation and restoration procedures.

“Jeremy’s work at the Memento Mori Museum is to nurture a place where lost histories are recovered and respectfully displayed.”

The museum’s website features images of fetuses in glass containers and claims that Pauley reuses specimens deemed unusable that would be sold by companies that misuse them.

“Due to the twisted nature of these businesses, Jeremy dedicates his time to preserving and reconditioning retired specimens to continue using them for students – sourced from MD’s estate sales, medical facilities and museum donations,” the website reads.

Sophie, a self-described “human blood artist,” said Jeremy was conned by “the woman in Arkansas named Candice.”

Harvard morgue manager Cedric Lodge, 55, and Candace Chapman Scott, 36, an Arkansas funeral director, both face 15 years in prison for their alleged roles in the macabre underground network that trades in stolen brains, hearts, skin and fetal remains.

An anonymous tip from ‘someone [Pauley] was no longer dating’ gave investigators the key to the case, according to Cumberland County District Attorney Sean McCormack.

The tipster told police they found what they believed to be human organs and human skin in the basement of Pauley’s home in five-gallon buckets, three of which they recovered that same day while visiting his home.

Police also discovered two human brains, two lungs, a heart, two livers and a skull with her after obtaining a search warrant.

Over a nine-month period, Pauley allegedly paid Scott $10,975 for various body parts — including a heart, brain, liver, kidney, trachea, ears, “two fake boobies,” lungs, skin, a penis, testicles, an entire head and two fetuses’.

Pauley is accused of reselling the remains he received to others, including tattoo artist Matthew Lampi.

Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, and Pauley bought and sold from each other and exchanged more than $100,000 in online payments.

Federal court documents filed in Arkansas state that Scott first contacted Pauley in October 2021 with a message that read, “I follow your page and work and I love it. I am a funeral director and work in a mortuary for commercial services.

“We’re contracted by the medical hospital here in Little Rock to cremate their cadavers when the medical students are done with them before disposing of them in a cremation yard.

“Just out of curiosity, would you know anyone in the market for a fully intact one [sic]embalmed brain?’

According to her lawsuit, she did not have a valid burial permit at the time and was not authorized to harvest organs, tissues or bones or dismember a corpse.

She took pictures of the organs in her apartment and sent them to Pauley using the United States Postal Service, once telling him that one of the fetuses was “not in great shape” so he could get a lower price , alleges the indictment.

Court records show she has been held without bail since April and is due for a psychiatric evaluation.

Pauley had previously been arrested and charged with abusing a corpse, receiving stolen property, and trafficking the proceeds of unlawful activity.

He also sells bone dust dice and other macabre items from his collection online.

A separate Pennsylvania suit alleges that Pauley also spent $40,049 buying Josh Taylor’s body parts — which she had purchased from Cedric Lodge.

It is alleged that from at least April 2021 to January 2022, Taylor, of Pennsylvania, sold human remains purchased from Lodge to Pauley at a higher price.

Taylor pleaded not guilty to the Pennsylvania charges last week and was also released.

Lodge allegedly stole remains from cadavers donated to the prestigious Harvard’s Medical School – which he had access to as a mortuary manager. He worked there since 1995 until he was fired on May 6.

A federal sedition revealed that he would “sometimes” take them to his home in New Hampshire, and that his wife Denise, 63, would ship the illegal goods via the USPS to others in their network.

The couple moved in 2020 from their $385,000 four-bedroom, three-bath property in Manchester, Massachusetts, to a smaller three-bedroom, two-bath home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where they are accused of continuing their cartilaginous scheme.

Court documents show that Denise sent “stolen human remains” from Manchester to Montgomery, Pennsylvania, in 2018 and 2019.

Harvard is now working with federal authorities to determine which donors may be affected and has set up a hotline where families of donors can access information and support.

The school insisted that no other school employees be charged or suspected of any wrongdoing.

In a statement, George Q. Daley, the dean of Harvard Medical School, described Lodge’s behavior as “abhorrent betrayal” and “morally reprehensible.”